Trip increases fleet and forecast revenue of US$ 764.7 million this year
O Estado de S. Paulo
A Trip Airlines announced yesterday an agreement with the aircraft leasing company Air Lease Corporation (ALC) for operating leases of five Embraer-190 jets and five new aircrafts ATR 72-600 model for the next ten years. The contract amounts to US$ 307 million. The first units begin to be delivered in May and the last come in 2012.
The company also said it expected its gross operating revenue to grow this year more than 70% over 2010. According to José Mário Caprioli, president of the company, the estimate for this year is of revenue of R$ 1.3 billion (US$ 764.7 million), against about R$ 750 million (US$ 426.1 million) in 2010. Regarding destinations, Trip ended 2010 flying to 82 cities and, for this year, expects to begin working in 11 more cities. By 2012, the forecast is flying to 100 destinations. "Our focus will be to increase the number of flights in cities where we are already operating. So, we will have a slower growth in relation to new destinations", said Caprioli.
According to the executive, Trip has a current fleet of 43 aircraft and will have 57 units by the end of this year - in addition to the leases for ten airplanes, announced yesterday, the company has planned the acquisition of new airplanes financed by BNDES and by the manufacturers themselves. For 2012, the estimate is that this number rises to 70 aircraft.
Caprioli ruled out the possibility that the company carry out an IPO over the next two years. "A company that needs intensive capital as any company in the airline industry has always in the radar an IPO, but I can not specify a horizon for this. But it should not occur until 2012", he said. The demand for Trip flights grew 82.64% in 2010, compared to the previous year, according to ANAC. From the data of the body, the company ended the year with a slice of 2.21% in the market.